Featured Artist/Maker: Eloisa Henderson-Figueroa

Pingui Designs is a creative business started by London based designer and maker Eloisa Henderson-Figueroa, a graduate of 3D Materials Practice from the University of Brighton. She started her quest to fill the world with colour and hilarity a few years ago after making a colourful elephant jumper which got so many compliments she finally decided to take the plunge and start up her own business.

Through her love of all things crazy and fun, Eloisa aims to bring these values through her printed textiles and accessories that will ensure that you feel great and stand out from the crowd.

During her time at University, Eloisa focused on creating toys for children with emotional and behavioural problems, resulting in a piece called Communicate, which allowed the child to express their emotions without having to verbalise them. Through the use of colour, texture and fun, the child would place different coloured magnetic balls onto a steel tree-like structure, depending on how they were feeling. This meant that the child could communicate to their teacher or learning mentor about how they were actually feeling, while engaging in a fun activity.

This then led to designing toys for Marks and Spencers, being spotted by Lego and running several workshops for children. This love of colour and fun has always been fundamental to her ideas and will continue throughout her work in the future.

All the clothing is designed, hand painted and/or screen printed, jewellery is hand made and prints are drawn while admiring the views of London, in her 11th floor studio at Create Space. Most pieces are unique, one of a kind garments, which look fabulous adorned with hand made cherry hair clips and strawberry necklaces.

The launch of her new website and ‘Animals on Wheels’ t-shirt collection (below) is nearing, with some of us at the studio’s already rocking them!